Knee injury ends Livingston's career
By By Todd Thompson, Hartselle Enquirer
Cory Livingston had already solidified her reputation as one of the best volleyball players in Hartselle High School history.
She won’t get the opportunity to add to her resume after a rare knee injury has brought an end to her bright future on the volleyball court.
Livingston underwent knee surgery following the 2009 volleyball season in an attempt to fix a meniscal tear, but a rare deformity in the knee ended her playing career before she ever reached her senior season.
Livingston was recently selected to play in the North-South volleyball game at All-Star Sports Week in Huntsville with four teammates from her club volleyball team.
She’ll make the trip, but will spend the match on the bench cheering on her friends.
The surgery was expected to be fairly routine. Instead, it brought a close to her volleyball career at Hartselle.
Livingston’s fifth surgery was expected to alleviate the pain that she suffered through after every match, pain that forced her to ice the knee during breaks between matches.
Instead, doctors put in donor cells to fill a space under the knee cap that was being caused by the bone. The cells will provide a cushion for the knee cap.
The surgery will relieve much of Livingston’s pain. It won’t, however, get her back on the volleyball court.
The doctor who performed Livingston’s surgery told her parents that she would never be able to play competitive sports again, especially volleyball.
The Livingstons had spent almost every weekend for the past five years around the volleyball court. Now with the sport being taken from Livingston, Theron and Nona Livingston had to break the news to their daughter that her dream of playing college volleyball was over.
It wasn’t an easy task for the Livingstons.
Cory Livingston was ready to get back to volleyball. After the surgery, she felt little pain and was up and walking that same day.
But all was not right. And her parents searched for the best way to tell their daughter that the sport she dreamed of playing at the collegiate level was no longer part of her life.
Livingston had played softball and basketball, but she gave up the other sports to concentrate on volleyball. As a junior, she was starting to get a lot of recruiting interest from colleges.
But over time, the pounding her knees absorbed on the court became too much.
Livingston, a competitive and active person by nature, might join Hartselle’s golf team for her senior season.
But hopefully, Livingston has seen her final time in the operating room.
